On Forgiveness Sunday (Cheese Fare), Fr. Matthew Howell discusses the themes of the day: the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, forgiveness, fasting, and repentance. He uses Matthew 6:16, "When you fast..." as a springboard to discuss Great Lent.
He frames everything in the context of Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." He claims that when Adam and Eve stopped hungering for communion with God that they fell into sin, and therefore we must control our selfish impulses in order to unite ourselves with God's self-emptying love. He connects the hunger and thirst for righteousness to scripture verses about the water of life and heavenly food (Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:17, Zech. 14:8, Jn. 4:10, and Jn. 4:34). He also talks about how we ourselves are expelled from Paradise whenever we sin, but that Christ comes to reopen the Gates of Paradise to us through His incarnation, death, and resurrection. Fr. Matthew also explains the liturgical connection between Forgiveness Vespers and Pascha in terms of how the Holy Doors on the iconostasis are used to remind us of our separation from God in Paradise. He finishes by discussing forgiveness and repentance as signs of our thirst for God, quoting from Elder Zacharias of St. John the Baptist Monastery in Essex, England.
Quotes from Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, At the Doors of Holy Lent, published by Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, 2021.
Page 259: "We forgive and the abundant life of Emmanuel reigns within us, abolishing the dominion of the fear of death and of 'them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul'" (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4).
Page 259: "We forgive so as to break all earthly chains and open the gate of Heaven."
Page 260: "We forgive and we are freed from the poison of bitterness and the demonic hatred that reeks stench throughout the whole world...And when we are not able to forgive, we repent, so that His spirit may come to loose the bonds and engender forgiveness within us. The hart opens, Heaven opens too; the heart becomes heaven and declares the glory of God."
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14; 14:1-4
Gospel: Matthew 6:14-21
